“Republicans have frequently criticized Obama for his admittedly hodgepodge energy strategy, a charge repeated in the new plan. The Romney plan solves that problem by substituting a narrow fossil-fuel production strategy for a genuinely comprehensive plan. Much in that fossil-fuel strategy is reasonable. Romney would shift more power to the states by allowing them to approve drilling on their lands and near their coasts without federal intervention. He would streamline environmental reviews, in part through clear deadlines, and in part by handing more control to the states.

“If that were accompanied by more federal capacity to process permit applications — something that Romney has decidedly not promised to do — the result could be a win-win for business and the environment.”

That’s a HUGE “If…”, especially if it’s something that Rmoney “has decidedly NOT promised to do.”

“The plan is also mum on the other grave energy challenge the country faces: climate change. Reasonable people can differ on how much emphasis to place on climate change in U.S. energy policy, but it isn’t reasonable to ignore it entirely. The Romney plan does not mention climate at all. To be certain, surging production of natural gas can help curb U.S. emissions, but it will come nowhere close to delivering the reductions the country needs alone. Romney likes to quip that people “do not call [climate change] America warming, they call it global warming,” his way of saying that climate change can’t be confronted unilaterally.”

Yet Dubya Bush, supported by the Republicans, refused to sign the Kyoto Protocols, which would ‘confront’ climate change ‘globally.’ Rmoney’s “quip” is yet another example of how warped his sense of humor, his character and his logic are.

The article continues…

“There are many good reasons to embrace rising U.S. oil and gas production and to reform the way government regulates their development.”

If ‘reforming regulation’ involves eliminating regulations, then NO, there are no good reasons.

…and finishes with,

“The Romney strategy for fossil-fuel development has some reasonable proposals on both fronts. But when it comes to comprehensively exploiting energy opportunities and confronting energy-related risks, the strategy falls woefully short.”

“An affordable, reliable supply of energy is crucial to America’s economic future.
I have a vision for an America that is an energy superpower, rapidly increasing our own production and partnering with our allies Canada and Mexico to achieve energy independence on this continent. If I am elected president, that vision will become a reality by the end of my second term.” -Mitt Romney

Of course, Rmoney’s basic premise on which he builds some of his so-called “Energy Policy” is a lie:

“In the midst of the energy revolution taking place on state and privately-held lands across America, oil and gas production on federal lands somehow plummeted last year. This was no accident. President Obama has intentionally sought to shut down oil, gas, and coal production in pursuit of his own alternative energy agenda.”

In addition, Rmoney’s “Energy Policy” is extremely vague, with many of the ‘power points’ in some sections appearing to contradict other points within the same section. And quite a bit of the policy appears to be based on studies by Citigroup (“Citi GPS: Global Perspectives & Solutions, “Energy 2020: North America, The New Middle East?” Citigroup, 3/20/12″), investment company Raymond James (Raymond James U.S. Research, “Yes, Mr. President, We Believe We Can Drill Our Way Out of This Problem,” Raymond James, 4/2/12), and the Manhattan Institute (Mark P. Mills, “Unleashing The North American Energy Colossus: Hydrocarbons Can Fuel Growth And Prosperity,” Manhattan Institute, 7/9/12.)

On ThinkProgress, several recent articles demonstrated Mitt’s cluelessness and lack of ability to hear or comprehend what comes out of his own mouth. In this one, Mitt insanely states that “I am very proud of what we did [Romneycare in Massachusetts – which included an ‘individual mandate] and the fact that we helped women and men and children in our state… And then with regard to contraceptives, of course Republicans, myself in particular, recognize that women have a right to use contraceptives.” Huh? Since when, and for how much longer?

Then Rmoney gives a shout-out to the Birthers, telling an audience in Michigan, “Nobody has ever asked to see my birth certificate. They know that this is the place that I was born and raised.” Apparently Mitt can’t understand how much this one comment legitimatizes the Birther ignorati, especially in conjunction with the fact that seven (count ’em, SEVEN) Birther conspiracy advocates will be speaking at the RNC in Tampa.

While these are just a few examples of what’s been going on with Rmoney’s campaign, there’s sure to be a whole lot more interesting goings-on during the Republican National Convention, which may or may not start today. Should be fun!

I find it interesting the the Republican party has turned from supporting a guy who they thought they could “share a beer with” to someone that they cannot drink with at all. Meanwhile, the guy in the White House makes his own beer.

I’m not sure I can watch that man…. also, I’m afraid to eat solid food and then watch him.

My bid though for a few drink events:
1. Energy independence by 2020 – a full glass of Guiness, it looks like oil and comes from a land where leprechauns live at the bottom of the garden, right next to the unlimited domestic oil supply
2. Obamacare bad / Romneycare good – a two-parter, a tequila shot with the worm in – because your only chance of understanding why this makes sense is having a short, intense hallucination.
3. Landing a man on the moon again /Neil Armstrong reference – a glass of Newcastle Brown Ale – where I come from, that beer is known as ‘Journey into Space’
4. A joke about taxes / birth certificates / offshore accounts – Jamaican rum, a couple of squares of Swiss chocolate… anything imported
5. Immigration reform, building the electric fence – a ‘black and tan’

6. If the camera closes up on a black man or woman watching in rapture and is *not* wearing a uniform, holding a broom or throwing bags of popcorn into the crowd…. a two-finger shot of the rarest, most expensive liquor you can find. Don’t worry, you won’t need much of it.

Channeling my inner Rahm Emmanuel and how you take advantage something bad that happens,
a hurricane hitting New Orleans will deflect attention and news from the GOP convention, and if Obama and FEMA react quickly, they could also highlight how government can HELP — a Democratic-led government.

Good collection of material on the Rmoron energy plan – there’s a 92 page analysis by some blokes at Citgroup. So far they are saying that, yes, the United States is going to find and develop a whole new Saudi Arabia of oil in 7 years….. the answer is deepwater in the Gulf of Mexico ( just like BP and the Deepwater Horizon was doing) and shale oil…. its going to take me a while to get through it, probably not today.

“When we make the blessing on the dates that ‘our enemies and haters should be ended’ we should have in mind the Iranian regime, those evil people who threaten Israel. Do good, God, wipe them out, kill them … Destroy them God, obliterate them from the face of the earth,” – Shas spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, after being briefed by Netanyahu’s administration on the Iranian threat.

This is an Israeli rabbi calling for another people to be obliterated from the face of the earth. The irony is lost.

well to splt hairs, Ahmadinejacket has, arguably (because he was paraphrasing someone else) said the same and is President of Iran. This fella is not in charge… but yes, the point is not lost. Chimpy called Iran part of the “Axis of Evil” …. what’s the difference?

I posted this link last night but it was rather late. Mostly it’s just an example of how different the American media is from the European media. Frankly, I can’t think of a major news outlet in this country that would brave the inevitable tantrum by the Reichwhiners and run this story.

He cleaned his clock … but its not just Obama that draws the rhetoric – you hear it all he time – Republicans/Tea Baggers calling for ‘taking our country back’ – who from? ‘Red Dawn’ was just a movie – the people you think have ‘your country’ are Americans too.

Its not just Obama, the eliminationist rhetoric, comes from the right all the time, it sounds just like ‘The Eternal Jew’…

i get the impression that, should we ever see them, Mittens’ tax returns would reveal that he intends to retroactively pay his fair share at some indefinite point in the future. Eventually. If he feels like it. And if the IRS is threatening to send him to jail.

I would like to thank TS Isaac for postponing the Repugnant party’s circus for one day…that’s the greatest gift for this avian who hatched on this date! (Isaac be gentle with NOLA, AL, MS, etc., as it seems to be aiming right for them).

Priebus the prick is one of the most loathsome people to inhabit this earth. His choice of the word is just so low-down.

“We need to prosecute the president on what he promised and what he delivered…
We need to prosecute the president who seems to be in love with his own voice…”

They can’t, truthfully, attack Obama’s record. Considering the fact that he was handed the biggest shit sandwich any President has seen in about 80 years; he’s done quite well. He brought one war to and end, is winding down the other, and succeeded in getting Bin Laden. He’s using the Reich-wing tactic of drone strikes against suspected terrorists (which I am very much against) but generally his foreign policy has been the direct opposite of his predecessor i.e. wildly successful by any measure.

Domestic policy? He cut taxes. We are climbing out of the worst crisis in 80 years and have seen consistent if slow growth during his term. He cut taxes.That record wold be much better, including more tax cuts for the non-wealthy, if not for the childish, and unprecedented, obstruction by the GOP. Job growth, again partially because of GOP obstruction, has been too slow but two years+ of increasing employment is, once again, in stark contrast to Bushco’s record. Did I mention that he cut taxes?

There are simply no legitimate complaints about his stewardship that don’t turn back on the insane collective hissyfit that is the GOP. So? All they have left is their constantly refuted claims that President Obama isn’t legitimate. Much of that is fed by the inherent racism of the Reich-wing but is generally couched in terms of his, wholly made up, philosophical “hatred for America” and the insane assertions that he’s not a “real American”. I have no illusions about the American electorate but there are signs that the Reich-wing has beheaded itself and now it’s just a matter of time before the headless chicken finally drops to the ground with a final shiver.

Another new movie coming that’s trouble for Obama. The cast of 40 is composed entirely of registered Democrats and independents who voted for Obama in 2008. This reflects a political premise shared by Bossie and Stephen K. Bannon, the film’s director—that the 2012 election will be decided by that group of voters in key states whose enthusiasm for Obama has descended toward disillusion.

And the melting season has a few more weeks to go too ….. and this week, one hlaf of the country’s body politic will continue to pour scorn on the facts while asserting at the same time that Fred Flintstone is real.

By a conservative, Daniel McCarthy, who expects the GOP coalition to come unglued:

“Earlier this week the New Yorker’s John Cassidy asked, “Where are the real conservative intellectuals?” The short answer is that “conservative” once signified an intellectual tendency with partisan overtones, now it signifies a partisan tendency that would prefer not to have intellectual overtones — there are no votes in that….

The wings of the GOP coalition over the last half-century have not primarily been separated by “issues” social or economic; they were separated by class markers and style. The ideological differences were secondary to those. But now there’s a politically and economically successful, if brain dead, fusion of the classes. The rich sound like the poor, and the poor angrily demand policies that favor the rich. The only problem for the GOP is that external conditions — the real-world economy and the distaste younger people have for the Baby Boomers’ version of the Republican Party (and their version of Christianity) — are eventually going to overpower this mercenary fusionism.”

Alright,its been a couple weeks since my sister moved in. I have noticed that a lot of cobwebs have disappeared and the dead insects I see are a result of that aerosol bug killer she brought. I don’t mind that she likes to sweep, but not under my feet when I’m on the computer.

I liked that she cleaned the bathroom and will admit that it had been a couple of weeksa few months over a year since I had given it a good cleaning!

I’m proud that I didn’t get upset when I discovered one morning that when she put a frozen pizza in the freezer the night before that the door was prevented from closing properly. The evaporator froze over from all the moisture, blocking the air flow and thawing everything in the freezer.

She does do the dishes daily as opposed to my system of doing them when I run out of plates or forks to use.

For the last few days I’ve been rearranging my stuff in an effort to provide her with her latest need…more space!

And yet? Bill0 will still turn umber and pitch a fit if anyone claims FAUX”News” has been actively campaigning against President Obama since the moment he clinched the nomination. According to impartial reviews of this “documentary” it contains about as much truth as the works of David Barton. Of course, truth is a meaningless term at FAUX”News” because their definition is “anything that will make stupid people afraid of the black guy in the White House”.

So, according to the lunatics at Answers in Genesis, Noah could have disposed of the manure in the ark by simply using a technology that didn’t exist at the time. Their “logic”? Well, “pure” humans like Noah were a lot smarter than us modern, sinful, folk so he could have invented it even though such a thing isn’t mentioned in the Buybull much less in the records of any of the advanced civilizations of the time. No. Really. They argue that Adam had a “nearly perfect brain”, whatever that may be, and Man has devolved since which would put Noah somewhere between Adam the Super Genius and us drooling morons.

Since Adam, allegedly, did the one thing he was forbidden because some chick got deceived by a talking snake I think I would have to take issue with their claim about how smart he was. Even if he wasn’t dumber than a bag of hammers he definitely had a penchant for self-sabotage which, in my opinion, is pretty much the opposite of smart.

All he had to do was stop after saying” “He should have never said anything like that”. But he just couldn’t stop himself from saying something “like that”. I still find it hard to decide how much is stupidity and how much is evil nature but, either way, these freaks have no business making decisions and casting votes that can affect peoples’ lives.

New Zealand just announced a withdrawal from Afghanistan as quickly as possible. Though their contingent was small (less than 150 soldiers), their decision comes on the heels of similar announcements from France and South Korea. Since deploying to Afghanistan in 2001, ten Kiwi soldiers have been killed in the conflict, three in a roadside bomb attack last week. When the bodies of New Zealand’s war dead are returned home, they are met with a traditional Maori war dance called a Haka.

If I was a soldier killed in action, this is is the funeral I would want:

There really is no bottom to Reich-wing hate for President Obama. Lushbo’s latest theory, which he assures his worshipers is not a conspiracy theory, is that President Obama forced the hurricane center to alter their storm track predictions in order to force the GOoPers to cancel the first day of the convention. You can’t make this stuff up and I can’t make this stuff up but Reichwhiners routinely make this stuff up.

The next time some Reichwhiner whines about the “nanny state” refer them to this story. It’s not the evil gubmint but a privately owned TV station that’s making the decision about what people can watch on their station. They refuse to air a show about a gay couple that is, presumably, happy and healthy and planning on a child via a surrogate mother.

I couldn’t believe my ears this morning. I had C-SPAN on the boob tube before work this morning and they were showing Ron Paul’s rally in Florida and he said something that absolutely stunned me….seriously. He uttered these two words “Corporatism” and “Fascism”.

We all can and do disagree with Ron Paul on a lot of issues and policies but I have to give him props for mentioning corporatism and fascism. He is the first republican to actually tell the truth about the direction we are headed as a country.

I was going to get the car smogged – that seemed like way too much excitement.
It was an early celebration last Tuesday – dinner at Kabul. A most fantastic, delicious, wonderful combination of spices Afghan restaurant!

We don’t have that here yet. I did some CO/NOx checks while I worked in Georgia. The cars were older pre-catalytic systems that usually failed the tests, and cost the owner to make them comply. It was almost a racket.

I agree, Tweety tore the head off of Priebus this morning but really, why is he so astonished by Rmoney’s birth certificate joke? Where the phuck has Tweety been? As a veteran political hack and DC insider Tweety knew it would come to this. His outrage seemed feigned.

Later on his own program Tweety had Newt on and Tweety again got heated over the Rmoney “joke”. He even replayed the clip of Rmoney making the birth certificate comment.

The thing that struck me as odd is immediately after showing the clip the camera panned back to a close up of Tweety who let out a chuckle and was smiling before the camera immediately went to another shot.

Tweety is suppose to be all hot and bothered by the comment, enough to go all ape shit over it on two different MSNBC programs and then we catch him chuckling and smiling after showing the clip.

Former Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter, 82, has been hospitalized with a serious illness, Philly.com reported Monday night.
Specter was treated for Hodgkin’s disease in 2005 and cancer in 2008, the Daily News reports. His son declined comment to Philly.com, which attributed their report on his illness to friends of the former senator.

I am by no means an unqualified fan of Specter but he was just about the only GOoPer with the integrity to say “no!” to the growing insanity. i am forced to wonder what might have been if just one other with a similar status had joined him in his “rebellion”.

This article about Dinesh D’Souza’s book, The Roots of Obama’s Rage, which is the blueprint for D’Souza’s hit piece movie, is the best discrediting of the movie and the author I have been able to find. If anyone has anything better than The Weekly Standard, I’d love to see it.

Hi, everyone. I’m Michael Grunwald from TIME Magazine, and Josh has generously invited me to blog this week about my new book, The New New Deal: The Hidden Story of Change in the Obama Era. It’s the story of President Obama’s $800 billion stimulus bill, which—wait, don’t click away!—was one of the most important and least understood pieces of legislation in modern history. The much-mocked Failed-Stimulus was actually a remarkable success.

As a VERY liberal person, according to the 12 questions put forth by pew research, the article linked above by the Bamaman from Michael Grunwald, is a good read, and puts things in historical contex, and dismisses the hysteria promoted by national campaigns.
I’m weary of the polling minutae. Btw where does TPM get their polling data? That’s rhetorical…I don’t really give a fuck. Mid September is when things are really going to get interesting, I hope I’m awake.